The race was fantastic. We had a great time and I'll for sure do it again. The water level at the lake was HORRIBLE. It took half a mile to run the length of the beach to the water's edge-no exaggeration!
We didn't know what we'd be doing until 15 min before it started. Then we got our "passport" that is something that had to stay with us at all times so that checkpoints at various locations could report our time.
The first thing we had to do was kayak, so we had to carry our kayaks half mile to the water to row across a section of the lake. It was horribly windy this morning so the lake was super choppy and challenging. carried the kayaks out to another part of the lake (maybe 1/4 mile) and then went running up and down very sandy beaches and hills with rocks. It was a 4 mile run out and back. Got back into the kayaks to row another section of the lake to go around a buoy and back. Then ran/carried those dang kayaks accross the original 1/4 mile, then kayaked back to where we started from, and back up the sandy 1/2 mile hill with them.
We lost one of our seats in our kayak on a return run with it so I had to sit on my knees which made all feeling in my legs disappear for the moment I needed them to run back up the hill with the boat.
After that kayak/run session we bolted to our bikes and covered, I swear, every square inch of trail in that area. I've been out to this spot a few times with buddies and we've done parts of the mountain, but never all of it..today we did all of it, every trick, every trail, ever challege was in the bike. It was awesome! My teammate wasn't really matched in ability. She does marathons and triathlons but is very endurance based, where as I work on speed and endurance. SO our abilities were mismatched a little but we still had a good time and I stayed her pace.
After the bike we had to go back down the beach 1/2 mile and do a physical challenge. it was a big pipe with a ping pong ball in it, hanging from a rope. The pipe had all sorts of holes in it and the object was to go to the lake (about 100 yds from where this thing was set up) and get a small bucket of water (which also had holes) and fill this pipe up until the ping pong ball comes out the top. SO I was the runner and I must've run back and forth like 10 times before I realized that ball wasn't making much progress. SO I looked down and saw some muddy puddles from all the other people! I used the muddy water and we were done in no time. back up the hill to the finish. It took about 2.5 hrs in all.
Crazy, but so fun. here is a pic of us. My teammate is the one next to me and the couple by her were our rivals (and friends). We now owe them a night of childcare and their favorite treat cause we lost to them..but look at that dude! hes huge and VERY strong. He practically did the whole kayak himself! lol.
HOWEVER, we got 2nd in our division out of 11 female teams
so thats something to brag about!
